290 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



Darkness fell as we approached the pass which led 

 through them towards the north. At their western 

 extremity, where they dipped into the sea, the soft 

 clear light of fading day, Avhich still smiled upon 

 the valley but left the hills in gloom, contrasted so 

 strongly with the deep shadows of the mountains 

 and their rugged sides, dimly seen in the brown air, 

 that no more fitting portal could have been conceived 

 into grim solitudes peopled by wild nomads, savage 

 beasts, or even by giant shades, as Dante's anticki 

 $2)iriti dolenti. But then at the eastern extremity 

 there slowly rose no modest maiden moon, but the 

 full-orbed Queen of Night, which soon obscured even 

 the brightness of the stars, flowed down the .valley 

 behind, silvered the jagged mountain-tops, and broke 

 down here and there between the cliffs into the pass 

 through which we rode. 



That, however, was an easy luTih, or pass, com- 

 pared with some which we passed through; and 

 thankful were we to escape leaving a camel in any, 

 with its fore-shoulder dislocated, to be devoured by 

 vultures and hyenas. The ranges are often double, 

 or even triple, and the track for it cannot be called 

 a path winds up beds of streams, among splintered 

 rocks, along chasms, and up small precipices, in a 

 way which keeps the poor camels, who require to be 

 specially trained for such work, in a state of grievous 

 terror and groaning. One pass took us no less than 

 three days to accomplish, or rather nights, for the 



